Overview

The languages currently taught within the curriculum are French and Spanish. All pupils study either French or Spanish in Years 7, 8 and 9, and the majority of our pupils continue their language study to GCSE.

In addition to their core foreign language, pupils with a home language are also given the opportunity to take a GCSE in this language (if available). This has to lead to a number of excellent GCSE results in languages including French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish.

Curriculum

The two elements that shape our curriculum are communication and cultural awareness. In every MFL lesson, pupils use all four skills (reading, listening, writing and speaking) to communicate effectively in the target language.

Our KS3 curriculum provides pupils with an overview of Spanish and French-speaking countries. In Year 7, pupils learn how to describe people and relationships, ask questions, express opinions, describe places and objects, and indicate time. In Year 8, pupils learn how to compare people, give further opinions, describe people and events in the present, sequence actions and plan for the future. In Year 9, pupils learn how to describe where people live, make arrangements and describe events in the past, present and future. Pupils follow a knowledge-rich curriculum and learn high level, authentic language, which they learn how to use in various contexts to ensure they have a deep grammatical understanding of the language.

In Year 10, our pupils begin the KS4 GCSE curriculum, which has three main themes: identity and culture; local, national and international areas of interest; and current and future study and employment. Pupils build on the knowledge learned in KS3 to develop their understanding and confidence in the language.

Pupils have access to a number of online subscriptions as well as workbooks, which both support their independent learning and continue to engage them in the subject.